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A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

Yesterday, I was reporting on the pneumatic collection of household refuse in the island capital, Palma. In country properties up and down Mallorca there is a different problem, that of wastewater and its reclamation. In the countryside, you would normally not have a communal or municipal conveying system of ducts or channels to collect fecal waste. It is rather a matter of each one to his (or her) own. Country properties would have a private septic tank or pozo negro on their property, usually a construction of three inter-connected chambers with the last one allowing the waste liquid to flow or leak slowly through porous material or small holes. The non-liquid stuff hardens with time and fills up over the years. Friends of ours had the need to have their septic tank emptied yesterday and, luckily, the friendly set-up of Limpiezas Toni & Jaime S.L. was available and willing to come and do an emergency suck-away job. It took them less than 30 minutes to empty the full septic waste tank. I don’t know where they take the fecal waste matter but I suppose it will be to a municipal treatment facility. The charge was 120 € in case you should be interested.

There may well be an economic crisis here in Spain but, believe it or not, there is enough waste matter around to make a living for the likes of Toni and Jaime. Their job may get a bit smelly but perhaps one can get used to the odors.

The photos were taken near Felanitx, Mallorca. The date: August 9th, 2012. The time was 13:40:54 and 13:41:34, respectively.

For a while, during my ‘illustrious’ career, I operated what we in Ireland call a slurry tanker. The contents were normally spread on agricultural land as fertilizer. Nobody noticed because, it- the smell- was immediately overcome by the effects of the bullshit emanating from our parliament.

The waste cesspool is vulnerable to overloading or flooding by heavy rains or snow melt because it is not enclosed and sealed like conventional septic tank systems. It is also vulnerable to the entry of tree roots which can eventually cause the system to fail.

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